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Sunday, August 10, 2014

Blessed Father Herman of Alaska: the Significance of the Saint

In 1970, when our church first received its
autocephaly from the Russian Church, it immediately did two things.First, it changed its name from the somewhat
unwieldy “the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of America” to the snappier
and now more accurate “the Orthodox Church in America”.Secondly, it canonized Herman of Alaska.This latter task was then ours to do:the rule says that whichever church possesses
the relics of a saint is the church charged with the task and privilege of
canonization.Thus, for example,
although St. Tikhon was the ruling bishop of the American diocese, he died on
Russian soil and therefore the Russian church which retains his relics was the church
which got to canonize him, regardless of any connection St. Tikhon might have had
with the American church.Bishop Tikhon
may have had a special love for his American children and left his heart in San
Francisco, but he left his relics in Moscow, and whoever retains the relics,
retains the joyful task of canonization.Thus in like manner, after 1970 the Blessed Father Herman of Alaska was
ours to canonize.

It
is significant that the first saint of North America was a simple missionary,
one who continued to embrace humility all the days of his life, even to the
point of shunning ordination.He lived
and died as a simple missionary to this land, and it is as a missionary that he
points the way forward for us today.For
we Orthodox in North America are very different than our Orthodox older
brothers in other lands.

Take
Russia, for example.Orthodoxy was
planted there before Russia was Russia, and before the words “Russia” or
“Ukraine” had any national meaning.In
988, it was simply the land of the Rus, and the land’s nationhood post-dated
the planting of the Orthodox church there.Orthodoxy thus grew up with the nation, and became part of the country’s
DNA.The Orthodox Church is thus now firmly
ensconced in Russia, to the point where it is hard to imagine that country
without also seeing it standing under the three-barred cross of Orthodoxy.

Or
take Greece, for another example.The
Gospel was planted in Hellenistic soil long before those living on the soil
became the nation of Greece.When Paul
brought the Church there, he found Macedonia in the north and Achaia in the
south; the unified country of Greece came much much later.Even in Byzantine times the term “Greek” did
not mean “inhabitants of the former Macedonia and Achaia” but rather “pagan”.Once again we see the Church predating the
nation so that the nation evolves and grows up with ecclesiastical blood
flowing through its veins.The Church is
thus ensconced in Greece as it is in Russia, and it is not surprising if its
bishops swagger just a bit.After all
this time, they are somewhat entitled.

It
is otherwise here in North America.Here
the nations of America and Canada have existed before Herman and the other
missionaries ever arrived.And,
praise-worthy evangelistic enthusiasm notwithstanding, it seems unlikely that
Orthodoxy will ever convert North America in the way that it once
convertedthose in the land of the Rus
or those in Macedonia and Achaia.Orthodoxy became ensconced there; it will not become similarly ensconced
here, so that our bishops should not plan on swaggering culturally here anytime
soon.We will never be the ones in
charge, as we are in Russia and Greece.We will remain missionaries.

The
example of St. Herman of Alaska reveals that this is perfectly fine.Becoming ensconced or culturally dominant is
not our goal; faithful proclamation of the Gospel is.Obviously we have to aim at converting
absolutely everyone, since God loves absolutely everyone.But our evangelistic zeal should not blind us
to the real situation.The reality is
that the cultural tide is now flowing against us, and in a few generations America
will not be a Christian country in any sense that St. Herman (or St. Paul)
would recognize.Indeed, in Canada this
has already happened.Radical secularization
continues apace throughout the continent, and the Land of the Free seems
determined to become the Land of the Secular.And in this land, missionaries will be needed.Perhaps it is providential therefore that the
first saint of the land was just such a missionary.We need the example of the simple missionary
Herman of Alaska now more than ever.

Fr. Lawrence on Ancient Faith:

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Fr. L. at oca.org

Followers

Father Lawrence Farley holds an M.Div.from Wycliffe College, Toronto School of Theology, and also completed a Certificate program at St. Tikhon's Seminary.

Since 1987 he has served as the pastor of St. Herman's Orthodox Church, OCA (Archdiocese of Canada) in Langley BC. Several priests, deacons, and lay members of new missions have emerged from the membership of St. Herman's.